Don't Call It a Campaign Book, but Paul Ryan Has a 2012 Book for 2016

Paul Ryan is writing a campaign book, and though it's not officially a campaign book, it seems to be exactly the kind of campaign book that exists merely to preview a presidential candidacy. The book will be published next year, and "it'll feature a mix of autobiography, political analysis, and policy prescriptions," The National Review's Robert Costa reports. One way you can tell it's a campaign book is that the autobiography part won't include the things that people actually want to read — the juicy stuff from Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign. Costa reports that "there will only be kind words and appreciation for Mitt Romney," as "They remain close and Ryan has assured his friends that he won't write a tell-all memoir."

It is not clear why it's a requirement for presidential candidates to write these books. No one wants to read them, except to find the few stray lines that can be used to embarrass the candidate many months later despite the careful screening of staffers to remove anything impolitic (interesting) from the text. (Like when Rick Perry attacked Mitt Romney for deleting a line about health care from No Apology.)

While Ryan hasn't been going to Iowa and New Hampshire like fellow maybe-candidates Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, he did use the IRS scandal to sort of say "I told you so." He said on Fox News Sunday:

The way I look at this, Chris, you mentioned the last campaign. Governor Romney and I we had to campaign against big government in theory. President Obama passed his agenda, but he didn't implement his agenda. So, we had to campaign against his rhetoric, his empty promises.

Now, we're seeing big government in practice. Now, we're seeing the arrogance. We're seeing the cronyism in practice in this second term. And that is even uglier than big government in theory.